NetSuite, a vendor of cloud computing business management software suites, has announced the NetSuite Crossroads Initiative. The new program is designed to help mid-size companies and divisions of larger companies to transition from aging SAP software to NetSuite OneWorld for SAP, NetSuite’s cloud-based business management suite designed for SAP customers.

The new product releases follow SAP’s announcement that maintenance for R/3 V4.6 will end as of March 2010. In addition, maintenance for SAP R/3 4.7 will be extended, but at a higher cost. These changes will affect approximately 70 percent of SAP users who now face the difficult decision of whether to pay increased costs for maintenance, or upgrade to SAP ERP 6.0, according to a recent study by Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research.

The NetSuite Crossroads Initiative offers an alternative to SAP customers: move to business software based on SaaS, or cloud computing, rather than the conventional license-and-maintenance model of SAP, which requires extensive in-house IT resources. The cloud-computing model greatly reduces the total cost of ownership and yields productivity gains throughout the organization.

With NetSuite OneWorld for SAP delivered via the cloud, SAP customers transitioning off SAP receive several key benefits, including never again having to pay for maintenance or perform another SAP upgrade themselves, as well as gaining anytime, anywhere access to cutting-edge business management capabilities across international regions, divisions, and subsidiaries using only an Internet connection and a Web browser.

“The migration to NetSuite is not only easier than migrating to the SAP product, but less expensive and most importantly brings customers to the Internet Age,” said Zach Nelson, NetSuite CEO.

For more information on the NetSuite Crossroads Initiative, visit: http://www.netsuite.com/SAPcrossroads. NetSuite also will host a Webinar on Sept. 24 at 2 p.m. (EST), which can be accessed at: www.netsuite.com/webinar.